Camaro outsells Mustang – first time since ‘93
July 2, 2009 by George Skentzos
The muscle car wars have reached a tipping point for the first time since 1993 with the new Chevrolet Camaro outselling the Ford Mustang in the month of June according to official figures released today.
Spurred on by a headlining appearance in the latest Hollywood blockbuster, Transformers 2, the Camaro outsold its arch rival 9320 to 7362.
The last time the Camaro beat the Mustang in US monthly sales was October 1993, when Chevrolet sold 10,985 Camaros and Ford sold 5680 Mustangs – a comparable result considering the current economic woes.
According to Automotive News, an even rarer occurrence is the Camaro outselling the Mustang for a full year – a feat which has not been repeated since 1985 when Chevrolet sold 199,985 Camaros, while Ford moved 157,821 Mustangs.
Mark LaNeve, General Motors vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing, has said strong demand for the Australian-developed Camaro has led to nearly every example selling at or above retail with sales doubling GM’s initial expectations.
The Camaro is currently in strong demand in California where there is only a six-day supply of the vehicle.
In some extraordinary cases, customers have been known to purchase their Camaro straight from the delivery truck – even paying as much as $500 over sticker for the privilege.
This represents the most unlikely of times for the most unlikely of cars to succeed in the US market, its just a shame there will be no financial repercussions for Australia, with the Camaro assembled in Canada.
Print it: 
I can`t believe it had not out sold the Mustang since 1993, I`m not that familiar with the Camaro but the Mustangs I think have been crap, so how bad was the Camaro?
The power of Hollywood. I bet if it had PEPSI on the license plates sales of PEPSI would have gone up too!
FORD lovers – Wait till the remake of Bullet comes out. They have a Mustang in it and knowing how good the chase scene was in the original I bet the remake will want to outdo it. I’m sure Mustang sales will go up after the movies release.
How could this thing not sell…?
What about the Hemi Charger?
Cheers
F-0
The Charger is just a rebodied 300c and it doesnt drive as well. But on the other hand it looks AMAZING. The Camaro just beats it in too many areas.
Quote ” I`m not that familiar with the Camaro but the Mustangs I think have been crap”
Clearly your not that familiar with Stangs either then!
The Camaro is a big step up from the previous and justly deserves the title.
Yeah, the power of media. But Chevrolet Camaro looks great and based on reviews performance is good. Mustang’s been there for so long and many would still prefer it over new cars…I guess it just depends on our preference.
Camaro is stunning, making great use of Crappadore chassis. It’s unfair we won’t get it here. It’s more of a stallion than a pony, more masculine than Mustang. But Ford’s Coyote engines will outgun Chevy’s pushrod dinosaurs.
Yeah I`m familiar with Mustangs of that era and the ones that came here, they were really crap and the sales of them proved that. So if they sold more than the Camaros, gee how dreadful were they?Oh but here we go I`m saying something about your beloved Fords again lol
Yeah I know what you mean Charles for a Ford to sell over 8;000;000 units in over 40 years it must be a heap of sh!t
mustn’t it?
When you look at the 4th Generation [1993] Mustang compared to the look of the 4th Generation [1993] Camaro; then look at the current models both Mustang and Camaro its easy to see why the Mustang Outsold the Camaro since 1993 as well as why the Camaro finally caught up
In 1993 the Mustang looked a lot better than the Camaro.. but now in their current form the Camaro looks more like the Original Retro Camaro than what the Mustang does – with its “coke bottle” curves
The only real difference between the two is that the Camaro utilises IRS whilst the Mustang has a Live Rear end – which effects handling etc and is why in a number of comparisons the Camaro has come out on top…. but only just
Does this mean that its falcons turn to out sell the commodore.
Well after experiencing the crap they sent over here I`m not sure why so many people bought them Wheelnut, but ask your mum she usually knows everything or someone that does LOL.
The Mustang’s we recieved were probably close to about twice as much as they shouldve been sold for given their equivalent price in America. Considering we were doing the conversion work, the smaller economy of sale, importing costs and a few other things, a locally built Mustang Cobra couldve sold for a few grand less than an XR8.
No doubt GM will be pleased the new Camaro is outselling the Mustang, but i’m sure Ford arent losing too much sleep considering the small gap and the carryover engines that should make way next year for the Duratec and Coyote.
people paying as much as $500 over the ticket price!? these americans are crazy!!
(LOL, Just new Toyota had to come up here somewhere, Damn spam word LOL) :-)
Back on topic though, I owuld normally expect the kid on the block to outsell it’s opposition for the first few months, (well done to GM on this BTW) however lets see how it is selling 4 months from now. That is when you get true indications of market acceptance.
$500 isn’t really that much…that’s only a pair of headlamp protectors on a Peugeot!
Also, the US gvt is apparently mandating orange indicators (instead of red) on cars. Bout bloody time they caught up with the ReST of the world in at least one thing!
LOL, well at least something is going right for GM. For how long is anyones guess…
Dont get your Hopes up BK. The Falcon doesnt have a competitor for the Sportwagon and that is cutting a huge chunk of their sales.
BK ,I heard FPV outsold HSV in May. Not sure what happened in June yet.
Best Stang available still currently,GT500KR Supersnake . Expensive landed and converted but an awesome piece of US Muscle Car.
Then I hear the Z28 may be reappearing in 2011 ,worth the wait ? I think so!
Both are products from an Industry geared to my grand-father. How sad.
What an excited Grand-father you must have then Will!
Well done to the Camaro. I’m still a Mustang man though! Can’t wait to see the new one and can’t wait til they put that engine into the FPV!
Sadder that General Motors crushed the EV-1. Had they actually developed them General Motors might actually exist today as an independent automotive manufacturer.
hahaha yeah but they did ,what a looker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1
Never mind Will you can only hope Skoda make a Muscle Car then you “WILL” be a happy boy :)
The only reason the Camaro won this sales battle was because the car is new and had a lot of pre orders. I figure the yearly sales will be a different story though. I figured that 1993 was the last time the Camaro won the sales battle because Ford still made the old Fox Body cars that year and the Camaro was all new. The Mustang was restyled in 94. As far as the Challenger goes I’ve seen a few one the road but don’t know how well they are actually doing. The Challenger is way too heavy though, around 4,000 pounds if I’m not mistaken.
Love this car, great design.
I must comment that some of the Mustangs of the 80’s era were awful to look at.
One of each from the land of the free please.
Snake
“I must comment that some of the Mustangs of the 80’s era were awful to look at”, I agree and they were all round pretty awful cars too.
Jon,thanks for agree-ing with me, it is so refreshing to have a positive comment.
I didn’t comment on the drive of these ugly things as I have never been in one, but they definitely looked awful.
I reckon they would have taken ages to win back confidence (ford ).
Well they drove like crap and they weren`t a scratch on the Falcon and they weren`t great cars. So I`m sure you could imagine how bad they were and still are.
The 80s Mustangs may haven not been the best looking but they are much better than the Mustang II of the 70s. Also the 80s Mustang makes a great project car because they are cheap, light, and you can find tons of aftermarket parts. My cousin has an 88 Mustang he is working on right now, putting a 351 Cleveland in it.